15strangers | W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

Entry tags:

*round 6,
*week 1

W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

[The national council just announced the blight to the country.

There was no sugarcoating it anymore. This was a critical time. Saving all of the vines is paramount, but what does one do when the blight hits? It keeps encroaching on the grapes, day by day. Entire clusters, entire bunches, dead and rotting, while allowing the blight to spread, and the leading botanists and viticulturists cannot identify the origin or the cause. They can't even successfully isolate the culprit in their labs; it seems to disappear like air no matter the precautions taken.

It is a catastrophe that seems to be beyond science, and it will result in the complete collapse of the entire country's wine industry. Already, embargoes on this year's crop have forced other grape-growers to close shop for the year after they'd sold their previous stock; it is all too possible that no grapes might ever be grown here again if a cure cannot be found. The tourists have stopped coming. The towns have grown silent.

You, meanwhile, are devastated. With the way your business is going, it will be on the brink of bankruptcy within the year. You will soon have no choice but to close shop and let every grapevine die, let the land go fallow. There must be a cure for this, there must be. Yet everything that can go wrong is.

Then, as you watch the news, it happens. Breaking news. The blight has been found in another country.

It is a pandemic-and it is only getting worse.

-

Well. This is...what else can can anyone say? You all know the deal. You all know what situation you're in. All that is left is to figure out what you can do about it. If there's anything that can be done.

You still feel that compulsion to distrust. To know you cannot win. To know that only the hosts have your best interests in mind. It would be easy to just do all that. But would it be the right thing to do? You can't be completely sure. Indeed, nothing is certain here, except for that damned ticking sound. If only you could stop it.

But you can't stop it. It is inevitable.

There are 15 strangers in this place.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have no idea.

[...this player swears, every time she writes a tag, she just wishes her character would at least TRY to be even remotely upset about anything.]

I should like to think this is what my lone human student sees through the ICPSS, though...

Uh...

[he's a bird? with a human student? and an unknown acronym??]

...Huh? I didn't understand any of that.

[explain to him if you don't want him to sit here theorizing you're inhabiting a clone]

Oh! That's right, this does seem to be strange to people from other worlds... I'll do my best.

[He clears his throat a little.]

In the world I come from, an avian flu decimated the human population a little under forty years ago. In an attempt to destroy the source of the virus, the remaining humans tried to unleash a countervirus onto the bird population... but all they did was mutate us, so we became just as intelligent as they are.

So, where I'm from, birds are the dominant species. I'm a teacher at St. Pigeonation's, a prestigious academy for young birdies everywhere.

Miss Tosaka is my lone human student. She's there as a human ambassador. She has an implant known as the ICPSS - the Intra-Cerebral Playback Synchro System. It allows her to see us birds as if we were human, just like her. She can turn it off, of course, so I've no idea if she actually uses it. But if she does, I'd hope that something like this body is what she would see.

[That's a lot of talking for someone who was out like a light fewer than five minutes ago. Damn.]

O-Oh. Okay. ...I hate that this actually makes a lot of sense to me. Just in case, what year is it for you? [viruses and counterviruses!! it's just like what they learned in the biolab!! and if a snail can kill 6 billion people then no one says the one who kills all of them couldn't be a fucking bird]

Also, uh... how do we know we don't just all have that chip installed, including you??

2187. And yourself?

[And as to the question, he can't help but smile.]

A fascinating theory, but no. [He lifts up his hand to stretch out the fingers.] My wings don't do this. Nor am I anywhere near this large as a bird.

Oh, shit. I'm from 2028... [jesus fuck it's not impossible. He takes a small step backward.] You don't happen to know if that first flu was engineered by a terrorist or anything, do you?

[he just kind of passively makes a note of this proof, he's got a new thing to be paranoid about.]

Ah...

[WELP. Well, there's at least one thing he can say that's hopefully helpful?]

No, I don't believe it was. I think it was just a natural viral evolution.

Good. [a beat.] Well, not GOOD good, it sounds pretty terrible for humanity, but at least I'm not gonna have to deal with that back home. ...My world's already as messed up as any of these ones we get taken to.

[He'll leave it at that for now.]

...The year 3000, with the defining point of our world's history being the Unchained Revelry millennia prior.

I'm not too sure if the dates mean anything, given how disparate realities work.

...Yeah, that definitely wasn't what I was expecting. It's more like, I'm supposed to be on the lookout for stopping an apocalypse we know about for the future, so that virus story - I just had to be sure.

[ONE case of epigenetically mutated bird species are one thing... BUT THERE'S NOOO WAY D&D USED TO BE A NORMIE WORLD, RIGHT]

[Nanaki yawns, then resumes speaking.]

Hm... well, it's hard to call my world an "apocalypse," but I suppose for humans like yourself, it just might be.

[And it'd be great if it sounded like you cared about that literally at all, Nanaki.]

Yeah yeah, I'm sure you bird dudes are just living it up with your new sentience and shit, but for humans that's just Planet of the Apes but with quails.

[he is not surprised nanaki would sell them to satan for one corn chip]

Haha... I understand that. We do try to accomodate what humans are left, but... well.

You all are quite violently protective of what you deem as your rights. It's quite like you never learned to share.

[He doesn't continue with that thought, and he certainly doesn't really emote about it, but... well. The implication is out there, isn't it.]

[it sure is. Eric scratches his scalp, a little uncertain.]

Maybe we should stop talking about this then... I don't think I could understand the politics of this sorta situation without all the context. I don't know what you've been through and there might be too much to tell anyway since it's a century of difference. As long as we're all equals here, it's fine, right?

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narcoolepsysensei - 2020-02-05 01:06 (UTC) - Expand

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poorlovefool - 2020-02-06 07:47 (UTC) - Expand

Ours was caused by the destruction wrought by a mad god, so I'm not sure if anything any of us could've done would work there.

That... does sound tough...

[mad god, huh.]

His name wasn't Sheogorath, was it?

It most certainly was not.

I take it you've never heard of the wrath of Tharizdun?

It doesn't sound completely familiar, no.

[read: maybe he played some trpgs in high school but i don't fuckin know]

Edited 2020-02-06 08:46 (UTC)

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necroyalty - 2020-02-11 19:30 (UTC) - Expand

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poorlovefool - 2020-02-13 08:00 (UTC) - Expand

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necroyalty - 2020-02-14 17:14 (UTC) - Expand

I understand the feeling, we're dealing with a war and someone attempting to poke holes in the walls between planes at home.

It sounds like everyone has issues they need dealt with.

Holes...? But what would that do?

[Eric is a geek so he's loosely familiar with the D&D meaning of planes enough that he's not going to assume he means an airplane, but he still doesn't entirely get what the implications are here.

Still, he is acknowledging this attempt at finding common ground whether for good or ill with a nod.]

Tear reality open so demons can climb into the Material Plane.

[No biggie.]

...ah, that happens in your world, too?

Christ...

[well it's not their fault demons do this but HE THINKS IT IS A BIGGIE]

[In all fairness, it was humans doing it where Kurama comes from.]

Some people can't leave well enough alone.

Oh, it's a recurring problem, then. We have a lead on who might be behind it in our world, though we don't know why and don't have a name for him. Fortunately, we have a number of people in my group who can cast illusions to look like anyone, so we can always use that to ask someone.